It was the day to begin defense of his 2017 division championship for the Waterford driver.

And it was about deftly defending the top spot to grab victory.

Monahan held off the late race charges of Jesse Gleason to win the 20-lap Limited Sportsman feature Sunday at the Icebreaker at Thompson Speedway.

Gleason, of Lisbon, was second and Scott Sundeen of Douglas, Mass. third.

It proved a special win for Monahan, who won the championship for the division last season but failed to win a race.

“It’s amazing,” Monahan said. “You take victory lane for granted when you can hit it often. To run a whole season last year and no matter what I tried I just always fell short. And to come out here today and get that win is a good feeling. I didn’t think it was going to happen. I wasn’t on top of the speed charts coming into today. I was struggling a litte bit. I was actually seventh fastest. But where there’s a will there’s a way. And cars were just kind of flying off at the beginning of the race and I was thanking the good lord because my bumper was awfully close to a couple cars that were spinning and I just made it through. Excitingly enough, I found victory lane.”

Gleason had multiple runs at Monahan over the closing laps, but was unable the way by without moving the leader.

“A lot of respect for Jesse today,” Monahan said. “I told him I owe him one. When you race with guys for a long period of time – Jesse’s been doing this for a while – he could have moved me. It could have got ugly. He could have attempted to move me. But, we’ve got a whole season to race together and the role may be reversed where I’ve got a little bit better car and if he doesn’t make a mistake then I won’t be able to get it from him. It was just good hard racing today. He was faster than me but I was in the lane that he needed to be in. … My hat’s off to him for a respectful run.”

William Wall of Shrewsbury, Mass. won the 25-lap Late Model feature. Woody Pitkat of Stafford was second and Nick Johnson of Rehoboth, Mass. third.

Eric Bourgeois of East Haddam won the 15-lap Mini Stock feature. Jared Roy was second and Wayne Burroughs Jr. of Oakdale third.